Plan to hire 100 Nevada correctional officers moves forward
CARSON CITY — A legislative panel Thursday endorsed a $7.6 million spending plan to hire 100 additional correctional officers at the Nevada Department of Corrections.
The funding recommended by a joint Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means subcommittee is included in Gov. Brian Sandoval’s proposed $7.4 billion two-year budget.
As part of approval, legislators said they want the department to provide quarterly updates on prison staff vacancies to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee.
The department’s overall budget is roughly $580 million over the biennium.
Personnel vacancies at Nevada’s remote prisons is a chronic problem, with 115 positions currently open. Ely State Prison, the state’s maximum security penitentiary where death row inmates are housed, is down 55 positions, or 20 percent. High Desert Prison and Southern Desert Correctional Center in Southern Nevada have 17 and 14 vacancies, respectively.
Adding personnel comes with updating a shift-relief formula used to ensure there is enough staff to cover vacations and other absences. Nevada’s formula has been in place since 1979.
“It’s a big deal,” Corrections Director Greg Cox said after the hearing, noting he doesn’t recall ever receiving approval for such a large staff increase.
Cox added the department has been stepping up recruitment and targeting former military personnel, with emphasis on areas in other states where prisons have closed.
“We’ve been very successful doing that,” he said.
At remote rural facilities such as Carlin and Humboldt conservation camps where vacancies are especially hard to fill because of a lack of housing, the department has developed recreational vehicle spaces. DOC also plans to create five RV spaces at Ely State Prison and to prepare infrastructure for five more.
Kevin Ranft, a representative of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041, hailed the committee’s recommendation to add officers and update the shift-relief factor.
“Providing these positions is going to save lives,” Ranft said.
To streamline hiring, the department last year expanded a correctional trainee program, where new hires begin work almost immediately and “shadow” correctional officers for up to one year before they attend required Peace Officers Standards Training.
Trainees are not allowed to handle keys or weapons and department officials said the program gives new hires a chance to see what the job entails before money is spent on further training.
Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb.
